Dr. Frits Bernard, the esteemed
Dutch clinical psychologist, died May 23, 1998, in his 86th year.
He was a courageous activist in the cause of personal liberation and respect
for the rights of homosexuals, gays and lesbians, boy-lovers and other
oppressed sexual minorities. He was the author of many important works
on these subjects.

Bernard served as a forensic expert
and as a director of the Association for the Advancement of Social Scientific
Sex Research, Düsseldorf, and of the Association for Human Sexuality,
Berlin. Also, he was a member of the German Society for Sex Research, Frankfort,
and the Association for Sexology, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Although Dr. Bernard was born in
the Netherlands, from the age of seven he lived in Barcelona, Spain and
attended the German international school. Shortly after the Second World
War he returned to the Netherlands. Bernard studied psychology at the Amsterdam
Free University, received a PhD from the University of Nijmegen and pursued
Freudian analysis. One of Bernard's fellow students was the renowned Dutch
poet Jan Hanlo,
a lover of older boys.

In the late 1950s Bernard joined
the Dutch homophile organization, COC. Using the pseudonym of "Victor
Servatius" he wrote for their publication, Vriendschap (Friendship).
He wrote from a scientific perspective about homosexuality and boy love.
Eventually others on COC's board of editors sidelined him and Edward
Brongersma (another Dutch pioneer in our movement). Bernard then founded
a group specifically for boy lovers, the Enclave Kringen. Enclave published
books and articles to combat public ignorance, the misunderstanding of
sexual diversity, and many stupid oppressive practices such as castration,
practiced in The Netherlands as late as 1969.

We confront these anachronisms in
America, even today. Reactionary thinking guides social policy. As Bernard
said, "Human beings have the tendency not to make judgments based
on facts, especially in sexual matters, but rather on simplified abstractions
of reality. New facts, including scientific research, are generally not
accepted or respected. This had long been the case with homosexuality.
Misguided notions thrived, and there was active resistance to any revision
of opinion."

In the 1960s, Bernard wrote two
fine short novels with boy love themes, Persecuted Minority and
Costa Brava.

In the 1970s he became active in
the sexual reform organization NVSH. The original research and activism
of Bernard and others, including his scientific research, made sexual diversity
a subject open to scientific research, public understanding and social
reform.

Despite his advancing age and the
tide of social reaction coming from America, Bernard kept up his activism
throughout the 1980s and 1990s, working publishing up to an advanced age,
especially about boy love and other sexual minority issues.

Though Dr. Bernard was better known
in Europe, his importance to all of us cannot be overemphasized. He was
a pioneer who brought refreshing and accurate information to a discussion
all too often laced with prejudicial cant, foolish "philosophy"
and moralism. He came to NAMBLA's 10th annual conference in Los Angeles
in 1986 to accept our "Lifetime Achievement Award." Bernard later
came to New York to appear on the Phil Donahue show. This and Dr. Roy Radow's
interview by Sally Jessie Rafael may be the only two occasions when our
views have ever had anything like a fair hearing on television.

Dr. Bernard and Dr. Brongersma were
two sides of a European renaissance of the boy love movement in the 1960's
and 1970's. The contrasts in their styles, their methods and their accomplishments
could not have been greater, although their objectives coincided. Both
recognized NAMBLA's importance for continuing and building this movement.